Michael Beasley

Maybe because I didn’t follow the NBA preseason as closely last year as I was working exclusively on Football, but I feel like there’s been a lot more preseason injuries in only the first week of action than in year’s past. Then again, Rodney Stuckey wasn’t even on the court, and slammed his thumb in his car door and needs surgery. It’s gonna make for a hell of a hitchhiking thumb in that cast! What it is with Detroit athletes and getting hurt in their cars? Not even a month ago Nate Burleson broke his arm reaching over to keep some boxes from falling and slamming into the median. All Detroit athletes need to avoid using motor vehicles. Maybe that’s proof right there Obama shouldn’t have bailed out GM. Give them all mopeds. Oh wait, yeah that won’t work, will is Monta Ellis? Maybe segways? I’ve got it! Just tell Andre Drummond he has to carry every Detroit athlete to where they need to go until his FT% goes above 50. He’ll be like a Detroit athlete tauntaun. See, tell me why I’m not an NBA coach. I already had moved Kentavious Caldwell-Pope way up before the Stuckey injury with how the Pistons coaching staff was praising him, and look for KCP to move to right around 100 overall in my next rankings update. Here’s what else went down since we last looked in at preseason action:

Heading into the upcoming Fantasy Basketball Season, Razzball will be interviewing local NBA beat writers for some actual in-depth basketball knowledge to shed some additional light on our fantasy basketball knowledge. Keep your eye out for an interview for every NBA team through the summer. This installment comes courtesy of Reece Helms from leading Miami Heat blog Hot Hot Hoops.

Martell Webster continues to light the east coast on fire from downtown, while much of the coast is being covered in snow. That Webster is so hot right now! Friday night, he scored 16 points, adding 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 steals and hit 3 shots from the arc.

I suppose there comes a time when a man has to lead off a fantasy recap with P.J. Tucker. Who? He nearly led his team in minutes and did produce a team high 17 points. Yes, but who? He added 5 rebounds and 3 sipes.

Jared Dudley did right in Phoenix last night, scoring 22 points and adding 4 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals with 2 3pm in 43 minutes. The 22 points were a season high, and after starting the season looking kind of like a Dud-ley, the past two games he’s looked sort of Stud-ley (hey that’s the headline!).

Pau Gasol and the Lakers have had a train wreck of a season so far. Pau is seeing nearly all his numbers being below career average (12.6/8.9/3.5/0.5/1.2 with 42% FG and 76% FT) and having “knee tendinitis” to boot. As such, I had to move him down in the tiers because you can’t be a Victoria’s Secret model with those type of numbers.

Mike D’Antoni is basically the only coach I ever talk about, and it’s partly because of the mustache, partly because of his offensive style. Chris Duhon has become revitalized under his old coach’s system. Last night, he shot for 12 points with 11 assists, 5 rebounds and 4 of 5 from downtown.

Alexey Shved scored 17 points last night in Philadelphia making it three straight 15+ point games (17, 16, 17) in a row now. He chipped in 4 assists, 3 rebounds, 1 block, and hit four three pointers. Not too bad for a guy who’s just 15% owned in yahoo leagues.

As I mentioned last week, every Wednesday I will release tiers for G/F/C in rotating fashion. This early in the season, there won’t be too many changes unless dudes like Danny Granger or Brandon Rush go out for a lengthy amount of time.

I considered leading with Greg Monroe and his triple double (and in some ways, I just did), but I decided to comment about Jrue Holiday. He has been off to a great start this season, and last night he put up 14 points, 5 rebounds, 12 assists and a block.